Durkheim On Religion

The famous French sociologist Emile Durkheim is universally recognised as one of the founding fathers of sociology as an academic discipline. He wrote on the division of labour, methodology, suicide and education, but his most prolific and influential works were his writings on religion, which culminated in his controversial book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Although his influence continued long after his death in 1917, this is the first book to provide a detailed look at the whole of his work in the field of religion. Durkheim on Religion is a selection of readings from Durkheim's writings on religion, presented in order of original publication, ranging from early reviews to articles and extracts from his books. Also included are detailed bibliographies and abstracts together with contributions by such writers as Van Gennep, Goldenweiser and Stanner. This book will be invaluable to those studying sociology and anthropology, but will also be of interest to those studying the history or philosophy of religion, as well as to anyone with an interest in Durkheim.

Religion is central to Durkheim's theory of society, and his work laid most of the foundations of the sociology of religion. Daring and brilliant though his analysis was, its bold claims and questionable premises has made it the subject of ongoing academic debate. Durkheim's work on the subject reached a peak with the publication in 1912 of what turned out to be a classic in its field, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. No other book has explained Durkheim's views on religion using thewhole corpus of his writings. Dr Pickering shows how Durkheim's position developed and explains the themes and theories that run through Durkheim's work. This includes Durkheim's attitude towards secularisation and Christian churches, as well as hisnotion of the contemporary cult of the individual.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1915 Edition.

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

This book provides an exciting, accessible and wide-ranging guide to the development of classical and contemporary Durkheimian thought. Jonathan Fish offers a re-reading of the writings of Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons on religion. He aims to move beyond rationalistic readings which have neglected the key significance of collective human emotion in Durkheim's accounts of the link between society, religion and morality. He goes on to look at the development of these ideas in the work of Parsons and more recent Durkheimian thinkers. Making an important contribution both to studies of Durkheim and the Durkheimian tradition and to the sociology of emotion, the book is distinctive in arguing that religion is an essential backdrop for understanding emotion. In making this claim the author provides a key to re-establishing links between the sociology of religion and the wider discipline of sociology.

This is the first collection of essays to be published on Durkheim's masterpiece The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. It represents the work of the most important international Durkheim scholars from the fields of anthropology, philosophy and sociology. The essays focus on key topics including: * the method Durkheim adopted in his study * the role of ritual and belief in society * the nature of contemporary religion The contributors also explore cutting-edge debates about the notion of the soul and collective rituals.

mile Durkheim is often referred to as the father of sociology. Along with Karl Marx and Max Weber he was a principal architect of modern social science and whose contribution helped established it as an academic discipline. "The Division of Labor in Society," published in 1893, was his first major contribution to the field and arguably one his most important. In this work Durkheim discusses the construction of social order in modern societies, which he argues arises out of two essential forms of solidarity, mechanical and organic. Durkheim further examines how this social order has changed over time from more primitive societies to advanced industrial ones. Unlike Marx, Durkheim does not argue that class conflict is inherent to the modern Capitalistic society. The division of labor is an essential component to the practice of the modern capitalistic system due to the increased economic efficiency that can arise out of specialization; however Durkheim acknowledges that increased specialization does not serve all interests equally well. This important and foundational work is a must read for all students of sociology and economic philosophy.

In Religion, Emergence, and the Origins of Meaning, Paul Cassell uses ‘emergence theory’ to explain why religion is so meaningful to individuals and central to social life, going beyond the foundational explanations of Émile Durkheim and Roy Rappaport.